The wife of late cricket great Rod Marsh has opened up on a life of love shared with the legend, revealing her anguish over missing precious time with friends because of WA’s strict COVID border closures.
In a rare interview, Ros Marsh described her husband of 53 years as “the most positive person I’ve ever known”. The wicketkeeping icon died aged 74 in March after suffering a heart attack, despite having no previous cardiac issues.
Mrs Marsh said despite spending many years living in Adelaide, they cherished connections with their WA home and the support it provided during the toughest time of her life.
“The letters, emails and messages have been unbelievable, from all over the world — they mean so much,” Mrs Marsh told The West Australian.
“But I want to make mention of all the wonderful messages and support from WA. We loved the fact that so many of his teammates were able to be present at his funeral as the WA border had just opened up (after the coronavirus lockdown).
“Sadly, we were not able to get back to Perth for three years after our planned trip in August 2021 was affected by the border closure to WA. It still worries me that he missed that time with our friends and family.”
Mrs Marsh said her husband had always been proud to have had the WACA’s Lillee Marsh Stand named in tribute to him and his great mate, fast bowling hero Dennis Lillee.
From the time Marsh met his wife-to-be at the age of 18, while they were both studying at the University of WA, the foundations were set for a special love story. Mrs Marsh was studying physical education and he was “supposed to be” pursuing an arts degree while playing cricket.
“Some of our subjects coincided and he quite liked my notes from lectures he missed while at cricket training,” Mrs Marsh noted.
“We were part of a large group of random people and went out socialising as a group. I didn’t know he played cricket, but afterwards I could see he was a pretty good player and they (UWA) were a great team.
“We had a huge amount of fun. We were engaged after about two years, but as struggling uni students our wedding was 18 months later.
“He mentioned to me that he was going to play cricket for Australia. At that stage he wasn’t even playing for WA.”
The Marshes were married at a modest ceremony in Mt Lawley on January 28, 1969. Their international cricket whirlwind began soon after, creating an “interesting and challenging turn” for their young, growing family.
Travel requirements meant Marsh did not see his eldest son Paul, now the AFL Players’ Association chief executive, from the age of four months to nine months. Daniel, the second of three sons, was born soon after and then Jamie arrived during Marsh’s time in the fabled World Series Cricket.
But as strong as Marsh’s playing legacy was, with his world record 355 wicketkeeping dismissals fuelled largely by his partnership with Lillee, his coaching prowess was equally significant at academies in Australia, England and India.
“So many of those boys he coached have been in touch since he passed away, most of them saying ‘he changed their lives’,” Mrs Marsh said.
“He loved them all and so did I … to see them flourish, have a great career and then have their families. It was such a special privilege to see how he took on coaching as it hadn’t been done before.
“He called in his expert mates, he took the boys on the most difficult tours to India instead of the comfortable United Kingdom. He developed their characters outside the playing arena. He did things differently and I loved the ingenious ways he attempted to get the best out of the boys.”
After their three sons left home, Marsh’s work took him and his wife to live in England and Dubai. A favourite holiday destination was Italy’s Lake Como and 14 members of the family once revelled in a trip to Queenstown in New Zealand.
Mrs Marsh said her husband was an unconditional family man, who also enjoyed the good things in life and was always giving to those around him.
“He loved life and family was everything,” she said.
“He was a great-grandad and each of his grandkids could tell you a story he would tell them with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He loved his cricket mates and remained in close contact with them right up to the end. They are a champion group and incredible support to me.
“He was no gardener or handyman, but happy to pay for both. He was an excellent golfer and has an incredible group of golf mates who have been a huge support to me.
“He also loved red wine and was very knowledgeable about the good stuff. He was so kind and caring and even his mates would say the same.”
But he was also notoriously testy with the media, a trait Mrs Marsh put down to a lack of trust, and did not suffer fools easily.
“Dishonesty, disloyalty … anything that wasn’t fair,” she said, adding that her husband disliked the public treatment polarising Australian batsman David Warner had received.
Surprisingly, after keeping for so long to firebrands such as Lillee and Jeff Thompson, Marsh’s hands remained in “amazing shape”, despite some arthritis in his later years.
Mrs Marsh said her family would always cherish the great times spent with him.
“Whatever he took on he made it work,” she said.
“He was unique. A very strong character with a great sense of fairness and left a lasting impression on most people he met.
“We, as a family, are so fortunate to be left with his amazing legacy and incredible memories. We were true soulmates and had the most wonderful life.
“His legacy is the number of people’s lives he influenced for the good and I’m so proud of him.”
Mrs Marsh said she had felt an added sadness while dealing with the loss of her husband when told that on the same day spin great Shane Warne had also died after having a heart attack. Warne had sent a message of condolence before his own death.
“I felt truly sad reading Shane Warne’s message after they both passed away on the same day,” she said. “My two eldest sons broke the news to me later in the day. Too sad.”
Mrs Marsh said she was grateful for the WA Government’s recent support to start a high-performance wicketkeeper’s coaching program in her husband’s name as well as the unveiling of the Spirit of Cricket Wattle Memorial in his honour at the Adelaide Oval during the recent Test against the West Indies.
She also wanted to encourage people aged 50 and above to be proactive in having heart tests.
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